


Dreams and Revelations

by wellsaltedlady



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Battle, Competition, F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23564014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellsaltedlady/pseuds/wellsaltedlady
Summary: "Alix and Kim had been debating who looked the funniest in their sleep, so they agreed to record themselves sleeping and share a minute of them drooling or snoring or something.""Alya! Did you record me sleeping?"Having your dreams made public can be embarrassing. Marinette's dream being made public will lead to a revelation for her superhero partner.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 10
Kudos: 245
Collections: Miraculous Stories





	Dreams and Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> Heartfelt thanks to my betas, [Khanofallorcs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs/) and [Remasa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Remasa/)!

Alya Césaire knocked on the door of the Dupain-Cheng residence early on a weekday morning. Sabine answered the door, flour visible on her apron, her face flush from the heat of the ovens. "Good morning, Alya! I doubt Marinette's awake yet." She looked at her watch. "Come on in. She needs to be getting up anyhow. I'll go wake her."

"No, Mrs. Cheng! I'm sure you're still quite busy in the bakery at this hour. I really don't think she'd mind if I wake her today, if that's okay with you." Alya implored with a smile.

Sabine relented. "Yes, actually we are quite busy this morning. Alright, dear, go on up. Be sure to send your parents my love when you get home later." They kissed on both cheeks, then parted ways.

Alya knocked on Marinette's trap door. When she heard no response, she opened it and climbed up. Sure enough, Marinette was still in bed, sound asleep. Alya took out her smart phone and started recording Marinette sleeping. Marinette's mouth was hanging open, but she was sleeping peacefully at first. After a couple of minutes, a grimace appeared on her face, and she started to moan. Alya whispered, "Is she dreaming?" Marinette started turning her head and moving her arms in her sleep, as those fear-filled vocalizations increased. Then Marinette began to talk in her sleep. She writhed, as though reaching or searching for something. Alya couldn’t make out the words she was saying, although they sounded purposeful. Her limbs floundered another moment before she opened her eyes. Relief flooded her senses when she realized that she was at home, in her bed. She hugged her pillow and sighed, "It was just a dream!"

Alya stopped the recording and put away her phone before speaking. "Hey, girl." 

Marinette jumped. "AHHH!"

"Whoa, didn't mean to startle you."

"Alya, what are you doing here? Isn't it a little early for a visit?"

"It's not early if you want to get to school on time. Come on, rise and shine! Get ready! You missed a lot yesterday. I'll fill you in on the way over."

Marinette grabbed a freshly baked _pain aux raisins_ and filled her thermos with coffee before heading out of her apartment with Alya. As they stepped onto the pavement outside, Marinette finished explaining how the previous day had gone. "So I didn't finish that essay until half past midnight!"

"You really should get started on these assignments sooner, Marinette. Miss Bustier gave it to us two weeks ago."

"And I started on it two weeks ago! I've just been so busy that I haven't been able to spend more than twenty minutes a night on it, until last night when I realized that there weren't going to be any more nights."

Alya shook her head. "Well, you can thank me for taking all the leg work out of our latest assignment."

"Huh?" Marinette's eyes were wide with worry.

"The reason I was in your room this morning."

"What assignment?"

"Relax! Alix and Kim had been debating who looked the funniest in their sleep, so they agreed to record themselves sleeping and share a minute of them drooling or snoring or something. Then Chloe said, 'I bet Ivan is the stupidest looking,' to which Mylène replied, 'Chloé, for sure you drool the most,' and before you could say, 'Bonaparte,' the whole class decided to record themselves sleeping and bring it to class to compare. Then we can all decide who is the worst drooler, or snorer, or what-have-you."

Marinette stopped walking just outside the classroom. "Alya! Did you record me sleeping?"

"Yes." She held up both palms in a defensive gesture. "Just a few minutes, right before you woke up."

"What was I doing? How did I look?"

"You looked like a sleeping teenage girl. At first, you were sleeping peacefully. Then you seemed to be dreaming. Then you woke up." Marinette just stared. Alya put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "Believe me, you won't win ‘Worst Snorer,’ although you might win 'Coolest Drooler.' Come on."

At their lunch hour, the class gathered in Miss Bustier's room to eat while holding their "Most Embarrassing Sleeper" competition. Max explained how to pair their phones to the classroom Smart Board via Bluetooth in order to stream their videos.

Chloé spoke louder than necessary as she worked her phone. "Now you'll all get to see what a sleeping princess looks like!"

Alix quipped, "We'll get to see why Prince Charming never came to wake you."

Chloé scowled when she heard giggles among her classmates.

Max spoke up. "I think we're ready to begin. The winner, chosen by popular vote, will receive..." He looked at Sabrina, who held up a small gift basket.

"A satin sleep mask, a bottle of melatonin chewables, a box of chamomile tea, a bottle of jasmine and vanilla scented lotion, and a bottle of lavender essential oil. Plus a €10 gift card to Starbucks."

Max took back the floor. "Who's going first?"

Kim said, "I want to see Alix."

Alix stuck her tongue out. "Of course you do. You're too chicken to go first."

Max offered, "Maybe we should go alphabetically by first name."

Chloé squealed delightedly, "That means Adrikins is first!"

Alix rolled her eyes. Turning to Adrien, she jested, "Alright, Sleeping Beauty, show us what you got."

Adrien cringed, smiled, and punched up his video, during which he was hugging his pillow but appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

"See, he is a Sleeping Beauty!" remarked Chloé.

"Dude, your sheets are all twisted," noted Nino. "How much did you toss and turn all night?"

One by one, they viewed each classmate's one to two minute video. Alix slept in her Dad's old Iron Maiden T-shirt.

One of Alya's little sisters had climbed into her bed partway through the night and took up more than half the width of her bed sprawled out, so that Alya was asleep on her side at the very edge of the bed. 

Chloé had on a sleep mask and looked picture perfect. The class agreed that she wasn't actually asleep in the video, but just pretending to be.

So it went. When Marinette's turn came, she was a bundle of nerves. It certainly didn't help that, before Alya pressed play, she said, "Marinette may qualify as the loudest dreamer." 

As the video began, Rose complimented, "Cute pajamas!"

Chloé had to say, "Is that drool? Ugh!"

Then everyone fell silent to listen to her dream. As all eyes were glued on the screen, they didn't notice Marinette's and Adrien's eyes balloon in response to hearing, " _Tikki! Tikki! Master Fu!_ " 

Marinette panicked internally. _I was talking in my sleep?! Oh no! Someone’s going to figure out that I’m Ladybug!_ Then she allowed her inner Ladybug to take over. _Wait, no one here knows the name of my kwami or the name of the Guardian._ _Best thing to do is to brush it off. Act like it's nothing. No one will recognize it for what it is._

When the clip ended, Mylène asked, "Wow, Marinette. That must have been some nightmare. What were you dreaming about?"

Marinette feigned ignorance with an awkward smile. "Oh, I don't remember!" In reality, she had had a nightmare in which she couldn’t find Tikki anywhere, and Master Fu had been captured by an unusually vicious akuma victim.

Juleka mumbled, "I think she should win the prize."

Adrien had turned around to look at her, but now forced himself to turn back to face front. _Don't stare. (Marinette is Ladybug.) Don't make it awkward. (Marinette is Ladybug.) You don't want to call attention to her. (Marinette is Ladybug.) You'll talk to her later. (Marinette is Ladybug.) Act normal. (MARINETTE IS LADYBUG!!!)_

After they had gone through the whole class, it was time to vote. Everyone scribbled a name on a scrap of paper. Then Markov collected and tallied them. After determining the top three, Rose was charged with handing out some quickly written name tags to the runners up. 

"To Alix: 'Raddest Pajamas'!"

"To Ivan: 'Snore-gasbord'!"

"And our winner," she paused for dramatic effect, "is the only one who could sleep with his head on the ground and his legs still in the bed, Kim!" Half-hearted applause, scoffs and chuckles could be heard throughout the room.

"Awesome!" Kim unashamedly accepted his prize.

\----

After their next class, Adrien slipped away to the restroom. He checked that every stall was empty before closing himself in one and addressing his kwami. "Plagg! Marinette is Ladybug!"

Flatly, Plagg replied, "I know." 

"What should I do, Plagg? I'm not supposed to know, but now I do. I can't unlearn it! Should I tell her, or act like I don't know?"

"You probably should tell her, since she's the brains of this operation."

Adrien appeared mildly offended. “Okay, but when should I tell her? How should I tell her? In the classroom, she succeeded in acting nonchalant about it, pretending it meant nothing. She probably thinks that she got away with it.” 

“But she didn’t,” Plagg responded. “Well, you know that Ladybug takes your secret identities very seriously. She trusts Master Fu’s word on the subject. And you know that Marinette gets easily flustered. So, do you really think that there _is_ a good way to tell her?”

Adrien slammed his head back on the stall wall. “She’s probably going to be upset about it no matter how I tell her.” He sighed, then shook his head vigorously to shake away the worry. "Alright, I'll figure this out later. Let’s get back to class."

As he left the restroom, he saw people scattering and heard a voice over the loudspeaker: _"THIS IS AN AKUMA ALERT. ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF, PLEASE REPORT TO A SAFE PLACE."_ Darting back into the restroom, he called for his transformation and leaped out of the window.

Finding Ladybug on a rooftop overlooking the courtyard of a nearby lycée, he finally caught sight of the akuma victim. She was very pretty, with every hair in place, immaculate make-up, snug-fitting jeans, fashionable sandals, red manicured finger and toenails, but she wore a man's black and white plaid long-sleeved collared shirt, which was clearly too large for her. What made her stand out as an akuma victim was a soft glow that radiated as though she were a model in an advertisement. She pointed her camera phone at the students as they tried to run away and tapped it as though taking a photo. With each press of her thumb, the person in her cross-hairs became disheveled in appearance and started shouting embarrassing personal details.

Lying prone and looking over the apex of the roof after landing next to his partner, Cat Noir quipped, "I heard about mean photographers like this. First they frame you. Then they shoot you. Then..."

Ladybug filled him in. "She calls herself, 'Public Shame.' It seems that a friend of hers posted an embarrassing video of her online, so she's out to get revenge."

Cat Noir guessed, "The akuma's probably in her phone."

Ladybug replied, "That'd be my first guess, but we can't be certain. Let's keep our thinking caps on." She squinted. "Her shirt has a front pocket. There may be an akumatized object in there."

Cat Noir turned to look at Ladybug. _This is Marinette. This amazing girl is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. How? How does she do it?_

Lost in thought, he almost didn't hear her say, "We'll have to sneak up on her to avoid her mind control. Let's not announce ourselves. Knock the phone away from her if you can." Not hearing a response, she turned to look at him. Noticing the warm admiration in his gaze, which seemed very out of place at the beginning of a battle, she asked, "Are you alright, Kitty? Did you hear what I said?"

With reverence, he replied, "Clear as an unclouded sky, My Lady." His gaze persisted a little longer and she started to blush. Smiling, he brought himself back to the present moment. "Let's kick this akuma's butt." That prompted a confident smile from her, and she led the way into the courtyard, holding a finger to her lips every now and then to prevent the few students who saw them from announcing their presence.

But Public Shame had gone down a hallway opposite them. " _Where are you, Sylvie? Come out, come out, wherever you are! Coward! You dish it out but you can't take it! I will find you!"_ She kicked down every closed door in search of her prey.

Ladybug flung her yo-yo and wrapped it around Public Shame's legs, pulling her down, as Cat Noir extended his baton and knocked the phone out of her hand. Cat Noir started running on all fours past her down the hall, aiming to grab the phone that had slid away.

"Well, if it isn't the Ladybug and the Black Cat? Hawkmoth told me you'd be coming." She pulled another smartphone out of her jeans’ pocket (the phone seemingly just materialized in her hand; her pants were far too tight to fit an object of that size) and aimed it at Ladybug, who released the akuma's legs from her yo-yo hold and dodged to the side.

Cat snapped the phone in half. "No akuma, My Lady!"

"Cat, dodge!" Ladybug shouted down the hall. In a split second, he looked up, saw the akuma holding another phone, and barely escaped being captured by the camera. Struck by the same idea, the heroes once again regrouped on the roof, avoiding being seen by Public Shame as she reached the end of the hallway.

"You can't escape. I'll find you, too!" She proceeded to kick down more classroom doors.

Up on the roof, Cat Noir asked, "What's the plan, My Lady? She's super fast with that camera."

Ladybug furrowed her brow. "We need to immobilize her in order to reach into her front shirt pocket. Trap her somehow." She called for her Lucky Charm.

A large sack fell into her arms. Ladybug pulled open the drawstring and looked inside. "It's full of pine cones!" she remarked. 

"Perhaps she has the appetite of a squirrel?" Cat Noir was grasping at straws.

After a moment, Ladybug announced, "I have a plan! Follow me to the gym."

The gymnasium had an upper level track above a lower level basketball court. Cat Noir and Ladybug positioned themselves on the track, just above a basketball hoop. Soon after their arrival, Public Shame walked onto the basketball court below. She stopped in her tracks and peered at the bleachers across the way. Sure enough, there was a girl hiding behind them.

"There you are, Sylvie!" Public Shame walked across the basketball court, unaware of the heroes’ proximity. As she passed underneath the heroes, they put their plan into action. Ladybug dumped the pine cones on top of the akuma victim. As Public Shame grabbed the pine cones to get them off of her, her fingers became sticky. When she reached for her cell phone again to aim at the heroes, her thumb would not come off the screen because the sap caused it to stick. 

Above her, Cat Noir placed his hand on the basketball hoop's mounting bracket as he shouted, “Cataclysm!” The hoop fell directly on top of the akuma victim, bracing her arms to her sides and pinning her wrists to her thighs so that she could not lift her phone.

The heroes jumped down to the court. Ladybug reached into Public Shame's shirt pocket, pulled out a photo and promptly tore it in half, releasing the akuma. "Time to de-evilize!" she shouted as she captured the accursed butterfly with her yo-yo to cleanse it, then releasing it.

Next, Ladybug threw the large, red-spotted sack to the sky to perform the Miraculous Cure.

Once everything had been righted, the de-akumatized victim looked around in confusion. "What happened?"

Bending down to comfort her, Ladybug said, "You were akumatized. Will you be alright now?"

The girl looked down at the photo in her hand. The boy in the picture smiled back at her. "Sylvie posted an embarrassing picture of me online, and I'm sure he's seen it. There's no way he'll like me now."

"If he's a sweet boy, one bad photo won't tarnish you in his eyes. If he cares about you, he won't lose sight of who you are deep down inside." Ladybug smiled in encouragement.

The girl gave her the tiniest smile back. "I guess you're right, Ladybug. I think I'll be okay."

Ladybug helped her to her feet, then turned back to her partner as the girl walked away. Looking at Cat Noir, Ladybug held up her fist for a pound. Ignoring the gesture, Cat Noir walked right up close to her so he could whisper in her ear. "You accidentally revealed your identity today, My Lady. I'll come talk to you about it later." He vaulted away before she had time to process his statement.

Shaken, she made her way back to the school, de-transformed in the restroom, then walked back to the classroom to grab her things. As the battle had occurred during the last class of the day, once the all-clear had sounded, the students were free to leave. Alya ran up to her as she was heading out the main entrance. “Marinette! Where were you, girl? You always find the best places to hide during akuma battles!” Holding out her phone to her friend, she said, “I’ve been getting reports from students at the lycée where the battle took place. Guess what Ladybug’s Lucky Charm was this time? ...Marinette?”

Marinette hadn’t responded at all to Alya. She was obviously lost in thought.

“Girl, are you okay?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m fine, Alya. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Marinette walked straight home, speaking to no one.

\----

Once in the safety of her room, Marinette haphazardly dropped her belongings and plopped down into her chair. Finally free to release the tension of the day in privacy, she started freaking out. "Tikki! Cat Noir knows who I am! Some of my classmates must have been gossiping about my wild dream and he must have overheard!" She covered her face with her hands, mad at herself. "Oh, no!"

"Calm down, Marinette," Tikki soothed. "He said he'd come talk to you later. You'll figure this out together."

Angry tears burned her face. "I'm so mad at Alya. I've done so much to safeguard my identity, and..." She wiped her tears away and sighed. "But I can't stay angry at her. I know she was just trying to be helpful, in her own intrusive way. Just... URR!"

Tikki sat on Marinette’s shoulder. “This wasn’t your fault at all, and Alya didn’t know what she was doing.” She tried to think of something positive. “At least Cat Noir decided to tell you as soon as he found out. Would you rather him know who you are but keep it to himself?”

That calmed Marinette down. “You’re right, Tikki. If he knows who I am, I should know that he knows.”

Tikki kissed her on the cheek. “Cry a little more if you need to. Then there’s nothing you can do until he visits.”

Marinette thought. “There is something I can do. I can finish the embroidery on that dress.”

\----

Still fully dressed at bedtime, Adrien approached his window. A clear night sky greeted him. Adrien wondered, if it weren't for the city lights, would he be able to see the stars? On a trip to the country with his parents a few years earlier, surrounded by darkness, he had seen the Milky Way in all its glory. Yet it was impossible to see from Paris.

And now, something else that had for so long been impossible to see, that had been hidden behind a simple domino mask, was clearly visible. Brilliant, moving, powerful… he now felt the same awe reflecting on Marinette as he did viewing the Milky Way.

The similarity struck him: something so forceful that you can’t forget it once you see it; something hidden so well that you can’t see it by sheer willpower if you’re not properly positioned to see it. This caused him to wonder about the other great mysteries of his life: his mother’s disappearance, his father’s distant behavior, Hawk Moth’s identity and motives. Would these things become clear to him one day as well?

Pushing these thoughts aside, he texted Marinette. 

AA: Hello, Marinette. Are you awake?

MDC: Hi, Adrien! Yes, I am. What's up?

He had wanted to have this conversation ever since he met Ladybug, to share their identities, become friends outside the mask. Having imagined a thousand possible ways that it could go, now that the moment was here, he worried. An accidental reveal was not ideal, and this one had a public element to it, which made it even worse. How would she take this? She was probably already freaking out about it, since he had mentioned it so abruptly before he left her this afternoon. Adrien breathed deeply and told himself, “ _There’s no such thing as ‘perfect’ with respect to the conversation that we have to have. I just have to be honest with her. She’s my partner and my friend.”_ Overcoming his hesitation, he said, "Let's go, Plagg. Claws out!" He ran across the rooftops on all fours as quietly as he could. 

As he approached Marinette's balcony, he saw that the lights in her room were on, but her balcony was not illuminated. He alighted on the balcony and took a deep breath to ready himself. "Plagg, claws in." He knocked on her trap door and took a step back.

Marinette lifted the hatch door expecting to see Cat Noir. She gasped when she saw Adrien standing there. Warily ( _because he could be an illusion or an akuma_ , she reminded herself), she asked, "Adrien? How did you get here?" She climbed up and stood in front of him.

Cautiously, he answered, "The same way I always get here, My Lady."

"Cat?!" 

“Yeah. It’s me.” Marinette just stared, wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights, as a million thoughts flashed through her mind at once. Her face turned red, but she was otherwise unresponsive. A little worried, Adrien said, “Hey, Bugaboo, don’t go Cat-atonic on me, okay?”

She finally spoke. “It is you. All this time, it’s been you?”

“Yeah.” Adrien put his hands in his pockets. "I take it Alya didn't give you a chance to preview that video before she showed it to the class."

Marinette tried to regain her composure. "No. I didn't even know that she had recorded me until right before we entered the classroom this morning. I asked her what was in the video, but she didn’t mention anything about me dreaming aloud."

Scanning her face, he asked, “Are you upset?”

Marinette let out a big sigh. “I’ve always been super careful about protecting my identity. But this was not something I could have predicted, not something that I could have prevented. Yeah, I’m upset.”

Adrien replied, “Well, at least I’m the only one who recognized the clues in your dream. It could have been worse if the whole class found out. Your secret’s safe with me.”

Marinette finally looked at Adrien, closely watching his face. _I still have one more secret, Kitty_ , she thought to herself. _And perhaps it’s time for you to know this one, too._

Adrien chuckled softly. "As soon as it happened, I tried to remain calm, but inside I was like a squealing fanboy." He met her gaze. “You know how I feel about you, Ladybug. Taking off the mask doesn’t change that. In fact,” he huffed with disappointment, “I guess it makes me even more hopeless.”

She spoke quietly. "Adrien, welcome to my world. I've always been a flustered, squealing fan girl around you." She gathered up her courage and stepped closer to him. “Can I tell you another secret? One that I’ve been trying to tell you for a long time?”

“Of course, Marinette.” He took his hands out of his pockets.

She took his two hands in hers and readied herself for the confession of a lifetime. “Adrien, you’re the boy I’ve always loved.” Seeing the astonishment in his face, she continued, “I’m sorry I was never able to say it to your face. I tried telling you by gifts, by cards, by notes, but when I actually spoke to you, I denied it. I was terrified that you would reject me. But now that I know that you won’t reject me, that you’ve already accepted me, let me say it clearly. I love you, Adrien Agreste.”

Adrien was elated. He laughed out of relief and out of joy. With reverence, he confessed, "I love you, too, Marinette.”

Smiles as wide as the horizon were disrupted by a familiar voice. “Enough with this mushy stuff! I’m going to find a snack. Hey Sugarcube, where do you keep the cheese?”

Tikki retorted, “Cheese _is_ mushy stuff, Stinky Sock. Come on, I’ll show you the way to the fridge.”

Once the kwamis disappeared through the trap door, Adrien wrapped his arms around her waist and swung her around. “You know, Marinette, you're the lady of my dreams." She wrapped her arms around his neck.

Imitating Plagg’s voice, Marinette said, “Enough with the mushy stuff!” And in her regular voice, quietly, “Just kiss me already, Kitty Cat.”

So he did.


End file.
